Photovoltaic cells (solar panels) have come into widespread usage across the US, especially on the heels of government and utility tax incentives and rebates. With cost no longer a factor, the reality of real estate or space often becomes a deciding factor in their use. Since the majority of solar panels range from 14% to 16% efficiency rating, (with a maximum of about 22%) there is a large number of solar panels and a massive amount of planar surface area that is necessary to generate a substantial amount of electricity. In the way of an example, a typical single solar panel occupies 17.6 square feet and has a maximum output between 400 and 435 watts. Taking daylight into consideration the average daily output per solar panel is about 1 kWh. The average home in the US uses about 1,000 kWh of electricity per month. Thus, it takes about 600 sq. feet of solar panel surface to power a house. With their supporting structures, this is about all most homes can accommodate on their roofs.
The future of practical electrical generation with solar panels is in large arrays. This means large, planar, spatial requirements. Rooftops and building walls present a plethora of problems including poor aesthetics, high reflection, poor light transmission below (due to the tight cropping of solar panels), hazardous rain shedding, loss of visibility and the safety of those below.
Since ground level real estate is the most expensive, (especially in urban areas) and is also susceptible to flooding and vandalism, logic dictates that these solar arrays be located in rural locations and be elevated to allow the continued use of the land below.
Henceforth, a non-intrusive support structure for large scale photovoltaic arrays with a non-intrusive method of installation that avoids all of the aforementioned pitfalls of the prior art, would fulfill a long-felt need in the solar energy industry. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration that accomplishes this.